hello,
My computer keeps crashing at random times, I have formated a few times trying different operating systems, i am currently running win millenium as it seems to prevail the longest. My computer also turns itself off at random times aswell. Sometimes when it crashes and is restarted a display comes up telling me there is a chipsum error, I believe this means there is a bios error.
My motherboard is an Award bios ECS (Elitegroup) K7VZA ver 1.1g 12/04/00 (i am guessing this is old) it also says on startup, Bios v6.00PG
.With an AMD athlon 1300.
I dont know how to find out which driver i will need or why to pick a certain driver, does certain aspects of your computer mean i would need a different version?
Once you find a driver how do you flash it to the cmos. I read somewhere on a page that you place it on a floppy and run it on startup?
Thanks for your time.
My computer Keeps freezing, could it be my bios?
From the sounds of it you have a hardware problem.
If you are lucky, it's just a grotty connection on a memory module or I/O card, but I have seen those symptoms with a motherboard fault.
To clean the memory & I/O card connectors, get a piece of plain, uncoated printer or copier paper, tear off a bit about 50mm or 2 inches square and fold it to make a strip about 1cm or 1/3" wide.
Fold it in half then fold both 'legs' back again to make an 'M' shape; the groove in the middle of the 'M' should be just the depth of the gold plating on the particular memory module or PCI card connector you are cleaning.
Grip the connector through the paper 'M' and slide the paper the full length of the connector three or four times. This will remove any build up of dirt and burnish the gold plate without damaging it.
Use a fresh bit of paper for each connector.
Vacuum or carefully brush out the connectors with a very soft, fine brush before replacing the memory & boards.
There is a good chance this will fix your problems.
Disconnect the machine from the mains supply first and use basic anti-static precautions; touch the bare metal of the machine chassis (and try & stay in contact with it, i.e. rest one arm on it) before & while removing or inserting any part.
If you are lucky, it's just a grotty connection on a memory module or I/O card, but I have seen those symptoms with a motherboard fault.
To clean the memory & I/O card connectors, get a piece of plain, uncoated printer or copier paper, tear off a bit about 50mm or 2 inches square and fold it to make a strip about 1cm or 1/3" wide.
Fold it in half then fold both 'legs' back again to make an 'M' shape; the groove in the middle of the 'M' should be just the depth of the gold plating on the particular memory module or PCI card connector you are cleaning.
Grip the connector through the paper 'M' and slide the paper the full length of the connector three or four times. This will remove any build up of dirt and burnish the gold plate without damaging it.
Use a fresh bit of paper for each connector.
Vacuum or carefully brush out the connectors with a very soft, fine brush before replacing the memory & boards.
There is a good chance this will fix your problems.
Disconnect the machine from the mains supply first and use basic anti-static precautions; touch the bare metal of the machine chassis (and try & stay in contact with it, i.e. rest one arm on it) before & while removing or inserting any part.
Robert Jenkins
I cleaned the connecters and slots and took a hoover to it. It seemed to make it worse though, now my computer is restarting randomly alot more.
Sometimes one of my HDD does not get detected either but after a few restarts it shows up again.
If anyone else can help me wipe my bios and flash the new one in, i think it might help as the checksum error seems to show up sometimes. I found a few places to a bios update but i dont understand why operating systems matter? Also most of these files seem to be .bin but there is no program to open or run that file or is there?
If you know of any good places to find bios drivers it would be much appreciated and also if you know how to flash them into my cmos.
Cheers for the time.
Sometimes one of my HDD does not get detected either but after a few restarts it shows up again.
If anyone else can help me wipe my bios and flash the new one in, i think it might help as the checksum error seems to show up sometimes. I found a few places to a bios update but i dont understand why operating systems matter? Also most of these files seem to be .bin but there is no program to open or run that file or is there?
If you know of any good places to find bios drivers it would be much appreciated and also if you know how to flash them into my cmos.
Cheers for the time.
Hey, i found the bios flash program and the correct bios update, when i run the program from disk after startup the program starts but when i want to flash the bios it says "could not find source file" What does this mean? The bios i am flashing is exactly the same as the one already in.
Depending on what flash utility is supplied, typically you either add the name of the actual BIOS file with a space after the flash program, or it has a text box for you to enter the filename once it's running.
Normally you must run it from a minimal DOS floppy boot disk without any other drivers at all.
Boot from the floppy and do a DIR command to see the files. You should have a .EXE file for the flash program and a file for the BIOS data, which could be called almost anything.
If this was e.g. A200312.BIN and the flash program was AMIFLASH, you could do:
AMIFLASH A200312.BIN
to start the program & load the file, or just use
AMIFLASH
then put A200312.BIN in when Amiflash etc. asks for the name of the file to flash.
If you use the wrong filename you could wreck your machine!
If in doubt, put all the files from the DIR command on here so someone can tell you which to use.
It still sounds to me like you have a hardware problem. Either another connector that has not been cleaned (possibly the CPU socket), or the motherboard itself is going flakey, probably a cracked copper trace or bad joint somewhere, sorry.
Normally you must run it from a minimal DOS floppy boot disk without any other drivers at all.
Boot from the floppy and do a DIR command to see the files. You should have a .EXE file for the flash program and a file for the BIOS data, which could be called almost anything.
If this was e.g. A200312.BIN and the flash program was AMIFLASH, you could do:
AMIFLASH A200312.BIN
to start the program & load the file, or just use
AMIFLASH
then put A200312.BIN in when Amiflash etc. asks for the name of the file to flash.
If you use the wrong filename you could wreck your machine!
If in doubt, put all the files from the DIR command on here so someone can tell you which to use.
It still sounds to me like you have a hardware problem. Either another connector that has not been cleaned (possibly the CPU socket), or the motherboard itself is going flakey, probably a cracked copper trace or bad joint somewhere, sorry.
Robert Jenkins
-
KachiWachi
- The New Guy
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania, USA
You can try resetting to the BIOS defaults to see if that helps (if you played around in there).
Also run Memtest to see if your RAM is seated and working properly.
I never heard of the "paper"trick...I've always used a soft pencil eraser on the contacts...works wonders!
Also run Memtest to see if your RAM is seated and working properly.
I never heard of the "paper"trick...I've always used a soft pencil eraser on the contacts...works wonders!
CPU - DFI 586IPVG, K6-2/+ 450 (Cyrix MII 433), i430VX, 128MB EDO.
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
I was shown the 'paper trick' by a DEC Engineer back in the PDP-8 days...
The old DEC minis had sometimes literally hundreds of plug-in 'finger boards' and apparently that was the only reliable cleaning method that the engineers came up with which could be used repeatedly without stripping the gold plating.
The old DEC minis had sometimes literally hundreds of plug-in 'finger boards' and apparently that was the only reliable cleaning method that the engineers came up with which could be used repeatedly without stripping the gold plating.
Robert Jenkins
Cheers for the info guys, i got my bios flashed using the winflash utility. It does not seem to solve the problem but however it does seem to be working better. I now suspect it could be the ram. where do i find this ram checker, in the bios?. I have fiddled round with the bios alot since this problem started but noting i tried changing resolves anything. I have 2 HDD one with XP on it and other with millenium, the xp does not last very long before it freezes. As xp uses more ram than millenium this could be pointing to the problem, yes..? I have 3 lots of ram in my motherboard, 256, 128 and 64 MB's could this combination be causing any problems and if it is can it be resolved.
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As you have the three memory modules, you could test by just removing each in turn & booting with the other two in place.
If one dodgy module is causing the problem, it should run fine in one of the three combinations.
If one dodgy module is causing the problem, it should run fine in one of the three combinations.
Robert Jenkins
-
KachiWachi
- The New Guy
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania, USA
CPU - DFI 586IPVG, K6-2/+ 450 (Cyrix MII 433), i430VX, 128MB EDO.
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
Hey, i downloaded and ran that memtest. It cam up with
448M - cashed
76k - RsvdMem
MemMap - e820-std
cashed - on
Ecc - off
Test - std
pass - 0
errors - 5
ecc errors - 0
TST - 3
Pas - 0
Failing Address - 00001956e1c -
Good - 10101010
Bad - 30101010
Error Bits - 20000000 - 25.3MB
Count.ch - 1
think i have a few errors what ever they are, but how do you go about fixing them, just by swapping round the memory or find one which might be faulty?
cheers.
448M - cashed
76k - RsvdMem
MemMap - e820-std
cashed - on
Ecc - off
Test - std
pass - 0
errors - 5
ecc errors - 0
TST - 3
Pas - 0
Failing Address - 00001956e1c -
Good - 10101010
Bad - 30101010
Error Bits - 20000000 - 25.3MB
Count.ch - 1
think i have a few errors what ever they are, but how do you go about fixing them, just by swapping round the memory or find one which might be faulty?
cheers.
-
KachiWachi
- The New Guy
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Test one module at a time. Sometimes cleaning and reseating the module helps. Also, if you are playing with your RAM timings, you *may* need to adjust them less aggressively.
If the error is at a constant address, that particular memory "cell" is most likely bad (stuck bit). Confirm in another RAM slot, or in another PC, if you can.
Once you are sure all of the modules are good by themselves, run them as a set. I've seen issues crop up where each module runs OK by itself, but other issues come up when run in a set.
If the error is at a constant address, that particular memory "cell" is most likely bad (stuck bit). Confirm in another RAM slot, or in another PC, if you can.
Once you are sure all of the modules are good by themselves, run them as a set. I've seen issues crop up where each module runs OK by itself, but other issues come up when run in a set.
CPU - DFI 586IPVG, K6-2/+ 450 (Cyrix MII 433), i430VX, 128MB EDO.
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
BIOS patched by BiosMan (Jan Steunebrink).
